ENGLISH: IT CULTIVATES ITSELF WHILE IN THE STOMACH

The overhead proverb is about the energy created by the food in the stomach of someone working in the farm. Food gives a person such energy he/she requires to work, since such a person will have his/her energy drained, resulting in reduced capacity to perform the work well.

People who weed crops are given food in the field to enable them replenish their strength to continue with their work effectively.

When the food is brought in the farm, the workers say to one another, “it cultivates itself while in the stomach”, meaning they should go and eat the food.

“This proverb is used during cultivation or during eating: especially whenever the farm workers feel hungry. So they would say, “it cultivates itself while in the stomach”, write Fr. Donald Syberts and Fr. Joseph Healey in their book entitled “KUENEZA INJILI KWA METHALI”. Page 11.

The proverb is likened to a person who feeds his/her workers well, because he/she understands that food is life. Food gives people the strength to perform their work happily.

Similarly, the axiom is likened to a wealthy person who cares about his/her workers by paying them fair salaries every month. He/she also pays them promptly.

Thus, such maxim teaches people about caring for workers; by providing those who work in the fields with enough food to give them strength, and by paying monthly salaries to those who work in the offices. Such care gives them the strength to enable them fulfill those tasks effectively and happily.

In addition, such a maxim instills in people the need to provide their bodies with enough food, which is a basic need, to give them the strength for fulfilling their daily tasks well and happily. In life when you work, it is not good to fail to eat, because “it cultivates itself while in the stomach.”